Voters cast their ballots at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in an election earlier this year. Early voting is underway in Tennessee in the Nov. 6 general election.(Photo: Brad Vest/The Commercial Appeal)Buy Photo

Correction: The Shelby County Election Commission initially told The Commercial Appeal that voters whose names are purged have not voted in two presidential primaries. Those voters had actually not voted in two consecutive November general elections.

One week into early voting, the Tennessee Democratic Party has identified a number of issues across the state and in Shelby County.

“What troubles us is it seems to be favoring one party and one type of voter over another," said party chair Mary Mancini. "It seems to be suppressing voters that would vote for Democrats, voters of color. These are things that are really troubling to us.”

Lee Mills, chairman of the Republican Party of Shelby County, said the only major issue he has seen was the Shelby County Election Commission having to deal with thousands of registration applications turned in near the deadline, some of which "may be fraudulent."

The commission has said that nearly 10,000 applications were turned in on the final day to register, many with missing information.

"That’s more of a concern to me than a few errors that really don’t affect that many people," Mills said. “The only complaints in the election always come from Democrats. That’s their modus operandi to try to claim something’s wrong and get their base out. There’s been no major issues, the only issues they had were minor glitches on the first day.”

Some registrations were rejected because the applicant didn't check the Miss/Mrs./Mr. box. The Shelby County Election Commission says this is because Tennessee requires voters to provide their gender. "Forms without that filled in are considered incomplete and we contact the voter to cure the deficiency on the form," said Linda Phillips, administrator of elections.

Some machines don't allow people to vote for a particular candidate or will switch votes on the confirmation page. The commission said this sometimes happens due to the type of touch screens and should be solved when they purchase new machines. An attached stylus can also be used.

When using the enlarge print option, Democrat Karl Dean appears on the second page of gubernatorial candidates, not on the first page next to Republican candidate Bill Lee. The commission has posted signs saying that people should not use that function and magnifying glasses will be provided if necessary.

Some early voting locations do not have adequate staffing or electronic poll books. The commission says they send additional resources when needed.

Twenty-five thousand names in Shelby County were removed in 2017 from the voter rolls. The Shelby County Election Commission points toward state law that requires voters to be purged if they fail to respond to a confirmation notice or update their registration. The voters whose names were purged had not voted in two consecutive November elections, the commission said.

The wording on three proposed charter amendment questions for Memphis changed from voting "yes" or "no" on a sample ballot to "for" or "against."

Shelby County is turning in details about early voting numbers late to the secretary of state. Phillips said this is because the county recently began using their new voter registration system and has to do paper reconciliation each day by hand. They aim to have the full report by noon the next day.

Mancini and Corey Strong, chairman of the Shelby County Democratic Party, said they do not know whether these issues are intentional, but that they do raise questions about voter suppression.

"Regardless of whether or not the mistake was intentional, the responsibility is on the election commission to fix these things," Strong said. “The question should never be are we on the line of what’s legal or not, the question should be are we doing what’s required to make sure voters feel faith and confidence in these elections and are being given their constitutional right, uninfringed, to cast their ballot for the people to represent them.”

As of Saturday, 44,260 people had voted in Shelby County. Statewide, the number of early and absentee votes came to 406,213.